Guest Post by Margaret Pearce

I started writing when my daughters were still young enough to demand fairy stories. My first tale was about a little girl with a witch grandmother. ‘Quick where’s the next chapter?’ the daughters both demanded after school every afternoon. So I kept writing more and more chapters until my tale equaled GONE WITH THE WIND in length. A year later the daughters moved past fairy stories so I found a publisher. The publisher then advised it was too long. Too long! She may as well have suggested that I chop off the head or feet of my babies to make them shorter. We had an undignified (almost) stand up knock down battle while my masterpiece was ruthlessly chopped and chopped again. By the time she was satisfied with all the rewriting, she then (as publishers always seem to after they have accepted your manuscripts) went out of print. My revised masterpiece kept returning from every other children’s book publisher. I believed implicitly that no editors loved it because it had been edited almost out of existence, not that it was still unpublishable. Years later when I stopped sulking I realised my original editor wasn’t wrong. I did more rewriting and www.writers–exchange.com accepted it and its two sequels, reworked from the discarded original themes (the fourth sequel having been mislaid somewhere in the changeover from paper to digital) both as an EBook and then as a print book. I was more delighted with publication of BELINDA AND THE WITCH’S CAT than I have been with any of my other books. It was my much beloved first baby. Like all doting new mothers I could see no fault in it. It is an unfortunate reality that editors aren’t employed for their ability to dote but for their ability to pick potentially readable books. It is even sadder that writers do have a tendency to be one-eyed about their creations and until they can stand back and examine them impartially will continue to be unloved by editors. The moral of which was to keep on rewriting and rewriting until you get there. I’m still not sure where the idea for THE YEAR OF OUR INVASION came from. My writing has never been carefully constructed; the way civil engineers construct and build bridges. I know exactly how the bumble bee must have felt when the experts once decided that it was aerodynamically impossible for it to fly. I am somehow similar in never being quite sure where my writing comes from or how it happens. I just write. My storyline either tumbles full blown from my mind, or undisciplined characters take over my storyline and end up in completely different directions from whatever I planned. Raven the green witch just appeared full blown in my mind. It was so easy to identify with a girl who loved plants and growing things with a mother who was a herbalist to encourage her. The contrast of the isolated peaceful village with the problems and changes caused by the invasion seemed logical, and the story wrote itself from the opening paragraphs. Like untamed weeds betrayal, greed, suspicion and distrust flourish in the aftermath of a land under occupation. The invaders gathered behind them a local army of all who believed in the safety of following the most powerful. I wanted to hint rather than show the growth of intellect, discipline and courage of the invaded, who only have their loyalty, determination and patience as weapons for survival and suspicion and distrust are no longer paranoia when it is not only the invaders who have to be watched.

Although written as a fantasy THE YEAR OF OUR INVASION is the most unoriginal basic down to earth tale of good versus evil. Of how the unprotected invaded struggled to adapt to fighting the evils of cruelty, arrogance and inhumanity of the invaders.

About the Book

Title: The Year of Our InvasionAuthor: Margaret PearceGenre: Medieval Fantasy/Science FictionLength: 210 pagesRelease Date: May 25, 2015ISBN-13: 978-1511442428Synopsis: The dreadful invasion by the sinister Black Duke and his thugs is bad news for the village. Raven the herbalist is ordered to communicate with a very odd alien captive or else. When she discovers that the plant based alien is the key to the destruction of the Black Duke she hurtles into danger to rescue the hostages.

About the Author

Although I was launched on an unsuspecting commercial world as typist, stenographer and then secretary I started off my paid writing life as a copywriter in an advertising agency. I took to writing instead of drink when raising children. Much to the embarrassment of my children I started getting published. It was dead easy. No one runs out of material while they are neck deep in children.

Completed a BA at Monash University as a mature age student.(English/History as majors, Class Civ. as a minor)I lurk in an underground flat in the Dandenongs still writing.